Amazon Prime to have ads 2024

[Saracen999]

I think if I tried a media backup at a home, I would prolly skip the NAS produce (so far afaik) and make enough large system board AMD64 servers to pile the storage into, probably as solid state SATA3 or so... in time, that would cost me. Could avoid RAID spinners that way though as I trust most current SSDs for read at least (hmm!).

While using SSDs instead of HDDs has an appeal, for the media storage type of project I have, two main thoughts :-

- Firsty, unless you're concurrently serving quite a few people with video, you don't need the speed they offer and HDDs can cope perfectly well, and

- Cost. Media, and especially video, files can be pretty big. Admittedly, I've got quite a lot to get on to the system, but even a single film at DVD quality and in a compressed format, can take several GB. My newest NAS (and yes, you could easily build your own, but I'll use the terms interchangeably) has four 18TB drives in it, with space for two more in that box. If you get to the point of needing that degree of space, doing it with even relatively slow SSDs is prohibitively expensive.

The 18TB drives were some £270 each. I suspect you'd pay more than that for a 4TB SSD. The issue for me there was cost/TB.

As an aside, I didn't mention it but that 6-bay NAS has a couple of M.2 NVMe bays in it and I'll be flling those with SSDs, but just not with a view to the media server side of it. The NAS has other used too.

Haven't heard from you for a while. Hope things are going well.

[cptwhite_uk]

Do you know what's hilarious? I have Amazon, Spotify, Audible, Netflix & Apple TV.

Half the time I download the shows through Torrent anyway (ones that I could just stream off the platforms I subscribe too).

Why? Often the quality it better than the streaming service provides, the user interface on PC is garbage or some other reason like it's blocking me because I happen to be on holiday and it thinks my account has been hacked or "this content isn't available in this region" digital rights rubbish.

If it weren't for the kids and wife using these services I would probably cancel them, and go back to Torrenting

A torrent will have downloaded typically within a few minutes, no problems or hassle.

What I suspect is even reasonably tech savvy younger ones are very wary of doing it this way, a collegue of mine who's 24 - PC gamer, builds his own PC ...but doesn't know how to download a TV show with a Torrent...they never had to do it having grown up with streaming services.

[Saracen999]

I haven't used a torrent for a large number of years, and didn't much back in the days when I did. But, as the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. I imagine this decision by Amazon, and others if it catches on, is only going to fuel those that feel 'piracy' is justified, and encourage some to do it that weren't before.

I watched a YT vid a few days ago where te argument being proposed was something like ....

- who is adversely affected by restrictive DRM? Legit users that have paid for their digital conent.
- who isn't affected? Those that get that same content by piracy.
- what mesage are the rights owners sending to those currently paying for the content, then?

The same kind of argument can be made here. Those currently paying for content (and in Prime, you ARE paying for it, even if it isn't broken out as an item charge), are being told "Now you get adverts". Those pirating stuff .... don't.

I have SOME sympathy for Amazon, though. Providing the video service no doubt isn't cheap - the licencing deals to carry it cost a fortune, and things like bandwidth and power for server farms aren't cheap either, and costs don't stay still.

Personally, I'd befar less annoyed if Amazon just said "Sorry, price has to go up". as I said earlier, I'd probably have muttered a bit, and paid it. And no doubt, there will be those that would rather put up with ads than pay more.

It's the way Amazon presented this that annoys me.

Which has led me to reconsider whether I want Amazon Prime at all? The answer, for me, is it's convenient and I haven't cancelled more out of inertia than anything, but this annoyed me to the point of over-coming that inertia.

I finally got the notification email yesterday, and that triggered the decision .... do I really want/need Prime at all? Nope. I'm content to rely on the music I already have, and the vast bulk of the time, on video content I own, too. So, I'll by a film DVD here and there where I really want something, add a few more boxed sets (just ordered Vampire Diaries as I missed most of it on TV and am a few episides in, on Prime) but will cancel all Amazon subscriptions before their next renewal. Anything I want going forward, I'll get elsewhere .... legitimately (*)




(*) Do I have a principled objection to piracy? A bit, yeah, but pragmatically, I sure won't judge those that do it, or take to it over this. I think Amazon are almost encouraging it with the way they did this, whether they intended to or not. These days, I just can't be bothered. I can't even remember what I used for torrenting, and have zero idea where is 'safe' and where isn't. And if I don't want <whatever> badly enough to buy the DVD, do I want it bady enough to faff about with torrents? Not really.

[[GSV]Trig]

Did the price not got up last year, or was it the year before, as you say, an increase, well we're all used to that, but adverts are usually the point in a show when you nip for a pee or to get a drink/snack..

[MrJim]

adverts are usually the point in a show when you nip for a pee or to get a drink/snack..

Err...that's what the 'pause' button is for...!

[[GSV]Trig]

Err...that's what the 'pause' button is for...!

Well yeah, you used to be able to do that at the start of a show, get your stuff together with the show paused, then you'd have banked enough time to ffwd through all of the adverts..

[Saracen999]

Did the price not got up last year, or was it the year before, as you say, an increase, well we're all used to that, but adverts are usually the point in a show when you nip for a pee or to get a drink/snack..

I haven't used adverts as a pee or cuppa-making time since the invention of the VCR. In more recent times, by which I mean probably early 90's, I had a Pioneer HDR/DVDR machine, which was even better. I recorded any program I wanted to watch to the HDR, spend a few minutes removing the adverts, because it had a frame-accurate editing capability built in. Result, ad-free program, ready for time-shift viewing, sans adverts. I ended up with three of those editing recorders, two Pioneer and one Panasonic. I still have them, though with Tivo-type capabilities, and yes, the 'pause' button, they're a bit redundant now.

The result is I haven't watched adverts on TV since about the late 70s, when yes, adverts were a time for a 'comfort' break or to put the kettle on.

Sure, I went quite a bit furtherthan most people would to avoid adverts, including using those HD Recorders, but I absolutely loathe adverts. Amazon have seriously stepped on my sensitivities with this move. Not that they'll care, of course. I get that .... unless millions of us react thev same way and cancel Prime over it. And sadly, I can't see any realistic chance of that.

I guess my feeling is .... how much is Prime worth to me? I was already doubting it was worth what it cost, especially with the music and Kindle options added. I might even keep the Kindle bit going, if I can do it without having Prime (and I haven't yet checked that) but this move stuffing adverts in is enough to annoy me enough break through my inertia and induce me to cancel.

[jimborae]

This is what I said about the subject on another forum

"The fragmentation of streaming services is getting ridiculous and so is their greed. All this is going to do is drive more folks towards piracy as it’s too difficult & pricey to find the shows you want to watch without adverts.

Certainly this is case with most of the halfway techy households I know. Most have switched from multiple streaming services to a download box/homeserver/ NAS media centre solution. Way cheaper, way more convenient.

However the problem I’ve found with using the services of Capt. Jack, Black Beard and his merry friends is that I now have a requirement for very large amounts of storage. This is compounded by the fact that I also rip most of my DVDs, Blu Rays and UHD discs.

Before I setup up all the ‘arrs, Plex, Jellyfin or Emby my NAS had around 6TB, of raided storage. Now my main NAS has 72TB, backup NAS 56TB and test NAS 12TB’s.

On top of this I’ve also developed an unhealthy obsession with building low power DIY NAS’s and trying to learn about the various different OS’s such as TruNas, Unraid,, OpenMediaVault and Xpenology. And then of course learning about running Docker and containers on these OS’s and boxes.

It’s a slippery slope I tell ya!"

[Saracen999]

....

It’s a slippery slope I tell ya!"

If I were a few years younger, I'd be doing the same with OS sampling. I'm rather more about finding a solution that's good enough, though, than finding the best. In other words, I wanted a turnkey solution, not a hobby. Even so, I have a Node 804 sitting here begging for a bit o f experimention. That's enough of a slippery slope for me. But I'm teetering on the edge of, to mix my metaphors, biting the bullet on a 3D printer, which is a slippery slope all of it's own.

[jimborae]

If I were a few years younger, I'd be doing the same with OS sampling. I'm rather more about finding a solution that's good enough, though, than finding the best. In other words, I wanted a turnkey solution, not a hobby. Even so, I have a Node 804 sitting here begging for a bit o f experimention. That's enough of a slippery slope for me. But I'm teetering on the edge of, to mix my metaphors, biting the bullet on a 3D printer, which is a slippery slope all of it's own.

Yeah don't get me wrong my main NAS is a Synology 920+ so as turnkey a solution as they come and I love it, for what I want the DSM OS absolutly rocks even if the hardware is a bit meh. The backup is NAS is where it's gets interesting, a Topton low power intel based board, 32Gb of ram, 10Gb SFP, 4 rusty spinners and 2 ssds in a Node 804, all running on Xpenology so it thinks its a Synology DS1520+. The test NAS is Dell T20 running Unraid and I have a NUC running OpenMediaServer atm this is all in preparation to the Zimacube kickstarter I signed up to as I dont think I'll be running Zima OS on them as its based off CasaOS and that's hot garbage for my needs. Also considering a 3D printer but I have access to one at work so that really isn't a priority atm.

[Saracen999]

Yeah don't get me wrong my main NAS is a Synology 920+ so as turnkey a solution as they come and I love it, for what I want the DSM OS absolutly rocks even if the hardware is a bit meh. The backup is NAS is where it's gets interesting, a Topton low power intel based board, 32Gb of ram, 10Gb SFP, 4 rusty spinners and 2 ssds in a Node 804, all running on Xpenology so it thinks its a Synology DS1520+. The test NAS is Dell T20 running Unraid and I have a NUC running OpenMediaServer atm this is all in preparation to the Zimacube kickstarter I signed up to as I dont think I'll be running Zima OS on them as its based off CasaOS and that's hot garbage for my needs. Also considering a 3D printer but I have access to one at work so that really isn't a priority atm.

Yup, very nice, is DSM.

My reservation was that quite a bit of the clever bits of DSM was stuff I don't need though, like the "Office" alternatives. I as also put off by the 1G ports unless you go 10G upgrade, and by their corporate tendency towards poor/mediocre support for non-Synology hardware. It was especially the latter. The 920+, as I understand it, is a smidge to old to be caught by that, by the 922 starts to indicate a direction of travel for how the company seem to see their future. I didn't want to risk getting into theirecosystem. QNAPs OS isn't as polished, but the gap has closed, and yeah, the hardware options are better.

Horses for courses, IMHO.

[jimborae]

I also purchased two QNAP NAS's, as I liked the hardware and could live with the software. I think it was the TS-464, but ended up with no end of issues.

The first one I got was the 8Gb model but due to hardware shortages they moved from dimm slots to soldered memory modules but didn't tell anyone. I was buying specifically to be able to upgrade the memory to 16Gb and above. Mine was a newer one that had soldered memory so that went straight back.

The replacement I bought was again the TS-464 but this time the 4Gb model as that didn't have soldered memory. However unbeknown to me, there is known hardware issue concerning the PCIE slots, and in particular the second slot being dead. Considering I would be doing SSD caching having a dead PCIE slot would be a real issue and sure enough as soon as I pugged in an SSD in to slot 2 it was not detected. Looking around online it seems many people were having this issue and having to return devices. So back that went and at that point I decided to give up on QNAP and start playing with DIY NAS's.

BTY with regards to the Synology 1Gb RJ45 ports I've got around this by using 2.5Gb USB ethernet plugged into the USB3 ports. You have to load an unsupported 3rd party driver but it works a treat and is completely stable and I can max out the bandwidth available. Yes if you're ultra cautious you probably don't want to loading 3rd party drivers that could contain god knows what code but I was willing to gamble.

[Rob_B]

....there is known hardware issue concerning the PCIE slots, and in particular the second slot being dead.

Seems like a rather large issue!

I wanted to turn a Dell 3020m into a NAS by popping a large SATA SSD into it and sitting it next to my router, any thoughts on decent software to use, simple rather than feature rich is fine.

[jimborae]

Seems like a rather large issue!

I wanted to turn a Dell 3020m into a NAS by popping a large SATA SSD into it and sitting it next to my router, any thoughts on decent software to use, simple rather than feature rich is fine.

Have a look at CasaOS if you want simple over feature rich, I described it as hot garbage but that was only for my needs as I needed Docker Compose to work properly with global .env files and it can't do it. However it's very simple to use and looks very pretty.

If you need something a bit more complex but still free (so not UnRaid) I'd recommend OpenMediaVault, I find it easier to use and understand than TruNaS.

[jimborae]

The other option is possibly Xpenology but that depends on how you feel about things that are a bit of a hack but it does open up the world of Synology DSM and converts your Tiny PC into a Synology NAS. For me it's working brilliantly on my diy NAS and has never crashed in over 6 months, however I wouldn't trust it with mission critical data as my main NAS. If this is a valid option for you then I'd recommend the following USB loader as I've found it the most straight forward and easiest to use.

https://github.com/AuxXxilium/arc

[Saracen999]

I also purchased two QNAP NAS's, as I liked the hardware and could live with the software. I think it was the TS-464, but ended up with no end of issues.

The first one I got was the 8Gb model but due to hardware shortages they moved from dimm slots to soldered memory modules but didn't tell anyone. I was buying specifically to be able to upgrade the memory to 16Gb and above. Mine was a newer one that had soldered memory so that went straight back.

The replacement I bought was again the TS-464 but this time the 4Gb model as that didn't have soldered memory. However unbeknown to me, there is known hardware issue concerning the PCIE slots, and in particular the second slot being dead. Considering I would be doing SSD caching having a dead PCIE slot would be a real issue and sure enough as soon as I pugged in an SSD in to slot 2 it was not detected. Looking around online it seems many people were having this issue and having to return devices. So back that went and at that point I decided to give up on QNAP and start playing with DIY NAS's.

BTY with regards to the Synology 1Gb RJ45 ports I've got around this by using 2.5Gb USB ethernet plugged into the USB3 ports. You have to load an unsupported 3rd party driver but it works a treat and is completely stable and I can max out the bandwidth available. Yes if you're ultra cautious you probably don't want to loading 3rd party drivers that could contain god knows what code but I was willing to gamble.

One of mine is the TS-664, i.e. the 6-bay version of the same, and yes, the 4GB v 8GB thing was an issue. However, for me, was it a killer issue? Nope. I'd rather it had socketed and upgadeable RAM, and I thought hard about it, but is it a non-starter? Not for me. But I entirely get that depending on intended usage, it could be. Lots of dockers or VMs etc would be one such case. I might dabble a bit with 8GB, but it's not a core use for me.

The ability to support two SSDs, however .... hmmm. That's new on me, and might well come into "not fit for purpose", them having advertised two slots. If one then don't work???? It's like a car manufacturer selling a car as a V8, but then supplying one where only 6 cylinder are connected - a con.

As for Synology, I appeciate the info but no, I don't want to buy into the sort-of polished turnkey system Synology present it as, and then immediately have to start hacking it with unsupported 3rd party drivers, etc. Moreover, it's the very fact that stuff, like 3rd party USB devices USED to be supported, and the rather more limited selection of 3rd party HDs and SSDs that, IMHO, speaks to their mindset, and to future developments. They've wound back on their stance a little, several times, on 3rd-party support but it smacks to me of half-hearted short-term mitigation, not any change of heart for the market segment.

Also, there's the choice of processor on newer consumer units, to Ryzen. Generally, I'm more inclined to AMD than Intel for CPUs, especially for Windows machines BUT, my primary usages for the NAS are general data storage, but fundamentally and centrally, Plex/Emby etc. That change of CPU says to me that they're refocussing the 922 etc more onto small businesses and general storage. For that, it makes perfect sense and may well be the better choice. For my use, not so much.

Add on that I really resent the 2.5G thing and, yeah, unsupported hardware might work but, well, isn't supported and there's no way I'm paying £2k+ (inc drives) for a brand new box that then requires me to resort to unsupported 3rd party hardware to get it to do what it damn well should do, right out of the box, in this day and age.

So yeah, I take your points but my message to Synology, if given the chance, would be that if they no longer want my type of user on that grade of box, just say so plainly. Their current method of dropping support for stuff they used to support, even if it would mean some staff time to test and validate on their new choice of hardware, just tells me they're moving away from what I want from such a box, but don't really want to say so. I don't trust a company with that degree of lack of clarity not to make things een harder for me, in terms of supported hardware, in future. What if they make some firmware changes to lock it down to "supported" hardware, generally meaning their own, in a year or two. "You have unsupported hardware? Oh sorry but, well, it's still unsupported and now, non-working". Nope, not risking it.

Unless Synology did a complete about-face on all this, then they're not right for me, and I'm 100% sure they actively don't care about that.

If I was reviewing their kit, it's a point I'd make - these changes will actively suit some users, and distinctly not suit others. Be careful to determine which camp you, dear reader, fit into before buying. The overall package is very impressive, and the software certainly good if you need/want it, for certain users.